The Neediest Cases; Clothed, and Clad in a Sense of Belonging

By LILY KOPPEL

Published: November 19, 2004

Maria Arias came to the United States on foot, in search of a better life for her twin boys and daughter.

Before she left her native El Salvador, which was plagued by a long and brutal civil war, there was no money to buy food, she said through a translator in a recent interview in New York.

She explained that her husband had been killed in 1989 because of his political activities and dumped near a river. Ms. Arias lived in fear, sometimes hiding in the mountains. She worried about being taken to the river, too.

It took a month to get to Los Angeles. In 1989, she left with a group of 20 and was among the few in her party who made it there. Ms. Arias's brother arranged for her to join him in New York, where he was living.

She didn't speak a word of English and started working where she could, cooking in a Salvadoran restaurant and taking care of other people's children. Her own children remained in El Salvador.

After several months, she began to build a life in America. She fell in love with a man, Marboqueo, and they started a family. They had two daughters, Jocelyn, now 12, and Carly, 11. They struggled to get by, but felt lucky to be together.

The family of four lived on one floor of an abandoned two-story house in Queens, owned by a pastor they knew. There was no heat or electricity. In 1993, for Thanksgiving, Ms. Arias was at a friend's house cooking a holiday meal. Her husband was at their house, and was supposed to come for dinner. Six o'clock passed, then 7, 8, and 9. Finally, around 10 p.m., Ms. Arias and her friends decided to check on him.

They found his body. He had been electrocuted while trying to rig some lighting as a gift for his family. Grieving, Ms. Arias was introduced to the Red Cross and the city's social services. After a year of wading through daunting paperwork, the family was approved by the city's housing authority for a small two-bedroom apartment in Central Harlem, where they still live.

Ms. Arias's children give her a lot of love. (She has three more children now, Omar, who is 10, Alicia, 8, and Marlene, 7.)

After moving to Harlem, Ms. Arias started going to the nearby Pelham Fritz Food Pantry, run by the Children's Aid Society. The only work Ms. Arias had at the time was bagging groceries for tips at a bodega.

Children's Aid is one of seven charities supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. Eddie Britt, a case manager, keeps a watchful eye on the neighborhood and noticed Ms. Arias at the bodega.

At the pantry, he mentioned the society's Dunlevy Milbank Community Center, where her children could get involved in after-school and Saturday programs.

When the children started going to the center, staff members noticed that they often wore the same ill-fitting clothes for several days, rarely had socks and sometimes wore sandals, even in the cold and rain. In December 2002, Mr. Britt first sought assistance for the family from the Neediest Cases; with $500, Ms. Arias was able to buy new clothes, shoes and coats for her children for the holidays. In December 2003, the fund supported Ms. Arias with $600.

Since becoming involved in Children's Aid programs, the children are much happier and more confident, Mr. Britt says.

And Ms. Arias is as fond of the center as her children are. She started spending time there and volunteering. She became such a familiar, trusted face at the center that she was recently hired as a part-time maintenance worker.

Ms. Arias supports her family of five children on less than $1,000 a month, which is patched together from her job, public assistance and food stamps.

At her apartment in September, she pointed out two yellowing plastic-covered sofas, the thin, sponge-like mattresses she and her children sleep on, and a TV that sometimes requires a smack to turn on. The children did not seem to notice, but the apartment's walls were crawling with cockroaches and flies.

Mr. Britt called upon the Neediest Cases in October for $380 for an exterminator, $1,050 for new furniture, and $500 for gift certificates to buy clothing.

Recently, at the center, some of the staff members were playfully teasing Ms. Arias about her new look, a haphazard bowl haircut. Her children, who are gaining on her short stature, surrounded her, laughing and translating for her. ''They say you look like a man,'' they told her. ''It's too short.''

Ms. Arias laughed and kissed her children, not terribly concerned about how her hair looked.

Then the family walked home, smiling smiles that said life was good -- or at least getting there.

HOW TO HELP

Checks payable to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund should be sent to 4 Chase Metrotech Center, 7th Floor East, Lockbox 5193, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11245, or any of these organizations:

UJA-FEDERATION OF NEW YORK
Church Street Station P.O. Box 4100 New York, N.Y. 10261-4100

Donations may be made with a credit card by phone at (212) 556-5851 (ext. 7) or online, courtesy of CharityWave.com, an Internet donations service, at www.nytimesneediest.charitywave.com. For instructions on how to donate stock to the fund, call (212) 556-1137 or fax (212) 556-4450.

No agents or solicitors are authorized to seek contributions for The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund.

The Times pays the fund's expenses, so all contributions go directly to the charities, which use them to provide services and cash assistance to the poor.

Contributions to the fund are deductible on federal, state and city income taxes to the extent permitted by law.

To delay may mean to forget.

Previously recorded: $2,776,371.42
Recorded Wednesday: $63,757.00
Total: $2,840,128.42
Last year to date: $2,531,128.86

Photo: Maria Arias with her children, clockwise from top left, Marlene, 7, Alicia, 8, Jocelyn, 12, Carly, 11, and Omar, 10, at their home in Harlem. (Photo by Earl Wilson/The New York Times)